Gm 1: W 3-2 Gm 2: Hughes vs Danks Gm 3: Burnett vs Floyd Gm 4: Nova vs Humber CC gets the win in Gm 1. Not his best stuff, but even when he's a little off he battles like a champ. He must be re-signed. Hughes gets another shot tomorrow, no idea what to expect like always. The good news is that Girardi announced they'll be going with a 6 man rotation for the next little bit, in light of Nova's solid start. This will also push Colon, CC and Garcia to start against the Fag Sox at Fenway this weekend.
CC is amazing. Even when he has a "bad" outing he's great. That's something like 8 straight starts giving up less than 3 runs. He's got to be in serious contention for the Cy Young now. As for the 6-man rotation, it's because of CC that we won't have one. I've long advocated a 6-man rotation, especially this year with the aging arms on the back end, but CC has to pitch every 5. I think Hughes is destined to finish the year in the 8th inning role, which is going to be quite an interesting situation if it happens. It's hard to argue that DRob doesn't deserve the 7th inning role, so where does that leave Soriano? Either way, if Hughes does go to the pen, I really hope Noesi gets sent down and put back into the rotation in Scranton.
You think Phil Hughes will displace DRob as the setup man later this year?! That's a bold prediction. DRob is whiffing two batters every inning and is looking like a potential replacement for Mo when he's done.
If Joba comes back from TJ surgery I can't see Robertson beating him out for the closer role. And there's no way Robertson is better than Hughes for an inning.
Yeah, trust me, I'd love for Hughes to pitch awesome in his next start, and get back on track. That's much better for the Yankees than a competition with Robertson for late-inning duties.
The 8th should be Robertson's to lose. Hughes would kill to be able to do what D-Rob's been doing in the pen.
Well fuck me running. Maybe the last six weeks have just been his spring training, and he's ready to go now. Dude looks tremendous tonight.
That sounds... complicated. We can hope. Nice to see him sitting 93 and hitting 95 (at least a couple of times). Velocity has held up decently through six. Pitching efficiently, too... which has probably been his biggest weakness (even when he was healthy and pitching well). ETA: Actually, I guess the velocity has sloooowly been ticking down... but nothing major.
And if he can continue to locate this well, 91-92 won't be a big problem. Although, his arm has shown positive growth tonight, maybe he'll still be sitting 93 through 100 pitches in a few starts. Btw, Tex has raised his average 15 points in three days. The BABIP Gods finally shine upon thee.
So the game called due to t-storming I believe. Does Phil still get a CG? Not that it matters, he was great tonight. Great to see.
Ahem...you were saying? :wink: Exactly. This is the Hughes we thought we were getting. Did you notice his lower body last night? Much smoother delivery than he's had in a very long time. He used to have a much jerkier motion, especially with his legs. He was getting a lot from his lower body last night, which he needs to do to maintain consistency. That was the tweak Rothschild made with him, and it seems to have worked. Speaking of Rothschild, I think he's my favorite Yankees pitching coach ever. Tex is on fire. Swisher too. That's the thing with this team, if a few guys get hot at once, the whole lineup starts exploding. Of course, the opposite is also true. Yes, Hughes gets credit for the complete game and all records, including Tex being the first player in major league history to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game 12 times. When you think about some of the great switch hitters that have played the game, it's amazing that a guy in the prime of his career has broken that record.
Yeah, complete game can be shorter than 9 innings, but they changed it some years ago so that no hitters have to be at least 9.
I was saying that Hughes would kill to be able to do what D-Rob has been doing in the pen. And I'd even say it again today. Hughes looked great last night, no doubt, but Robertson has been striking out two guys per inning for the entire season. I wouldn't say that Hughes would definitely be better than Robertson in the eighth inning after last night's performance, so I sure as hell wouldn't say it before. As a gigantic Hughes fanboy, of course I was happy to see a dominant performance last night, but at the same time, if we were going to list our complaints about Hughes, we wouldn't put lack of talent at the top of the list... it's lack of consistency. I know you're just messing around, but I'd wait until Hughes showed that kind of stuff (if not that kind of result) three out of four times before I'll have more faith in him than I do in (believe it or not) Garcia.
So A-Rod might get suspended for playing high stakes poker with his millionaire buddies. http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/6830659/mlb-looking-alex-rodriguez-illegal-poker pretty sweet game tho
Affleck and Damon were there? I have a feeling a couple of Sox fans will have no problem confirming to MLB that Rodriguez was there...
Agreed. Robertson has been LIGHTS OUT. He may be the best reliever in baseball right now. Fastball in the mid-90s, a DIRTY curve, and the ability to locate his pitches on the corners. The dude has been borderline un-hittable.
